Many vehicles are designed to transport freight, goods, merchandise, personal property, and other such cargo. Often such vehicles are arranged to tow a trailer by attaching the trailer to the towing vehicle, such as through the use of a hitch assembly. Typically, a trailer hitch is utilized to connect a towed vehicle or trailer to a towing vehicle, such as a truck, for example.
There are many different types of trailer hitches in the art that may be attached to the towing vehicle in a variety of ways, depending on the type of hitch. Some of the most common types of hitches include gooseneck, fifth wheel, rear mount, and the like. Frequently, trailers are connected to a towing vehicle by way of a ball hitch secured to the towing vehicle and a ball socket coupling mechanism on the towed vehicle that mounts over the ball. This configuration allows for the trailer to pivot behind the towing vehicle.
Ball and socket-type towing mechanisms are used to tow various vehicles, such as trailers, mobile homes, other non-operating vehicles, and the like. The socket to hitch ball connection allows relative movement between the towing vehicle and the trailer as the towing vehicle makes turns, traverses uneven or rough terrain, and passes along inclining and declining roadways.
The hitch ball or member of some hitches, such as gooseneck hitch, for example, is commonly mounted in the bed of a towing vehicle, such as a pickup truck, near the longitudinal centerline of the bed. This may allow the weight of the trailer to be generally distributed between the tires on the two sides of the pickup truck. Typically, a sub-frame assembly, such as a hitch, is secured to the towing vehicle. The ball member is attached or otherwise secured to the hitch for use in towing the towed vehicle.
This type of hitch is often secured to the truck structure in an opening cut in the bed of the truck, so that a substantial portion of the hitch attachment is located below the bed of the truck. In addition, the ball member may typically be removed to ensure that the use of the bed is not substantially hindered by the presence of the ball.
These systems, however, suffer from many disadvantages. It is often very difficult to remove the hitch ball from the hitch system. In many systems, removing the hitch ball requires a user to access the frame of the towing vehicle under the load bed. This is often very difficult and time consuming. Further, still other systems require users to access portions of the system in the wheel well or under the frame of the vehicle. Again, this is often difficult to do and can be very messy for the user. Similarly, other systems often require the use of a separate handle or mechanism to remove the hitch ball. These handles or other mechanism are often inaccessible or otherwise are lost by the user making it very inconvenient to use.
Once removed a suitable location for the hitch ball is often difficult to find. Many users merely store the hitch ball in a glove compartment, behind a seat, underneath a seat, or in a storage box within the towing vehicle. This takes away from the available storage space within the towing vehicle. Moreover, the hitch ball may be dirty and it may be undesirable to put such hitch ball inside the towing vehicle. For those systems that utilize storable hitch balls, there is often a lack of sufficient clearance available to use such systems with many of the new towing vehicle, especially when they are in the stowed position.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved hitch ball system. There is a need for a hitch ball that is easily removable and easily storable. There is a need for such storage to be efficient, easily accessible, and appropriately located so as to not take away the available storage within the interior of the towing vehicle. Further still, there is a need for a self-contained hitch ball storage system that has a compact storable profile.